Better ending?

[tonyvfd]

Does anybody else think that the penultimate peril would have been a better ending? We have most of the characters the Baudelaire children knew in their journey. The children doubting themselves and comiting or at least assisting in arson. You may be wondering,but what about Beatrice II. well it would require a retcon, but kit could still die at the hotel. what if instead of Dewey they shoot her instead?(dewey could still die in the fire) giving birth before dying that would be even more tragic. The book could have ended with the the Baudelaire Beatrice II and Olaf escaping aboard the Carmelita sailing to the unknown. That would be as ambiguous as the Baudelaire leaving the island

[Dante]

I think this has a lot to do with the status of TPP as denouement and The End as ending. TPP is the dramatic climax that brings the majority of narrative threads and subplots to their natural conclusion, and this being A Series of Unfortunate Events, that conclusion is a disastrous one. The End, the falling action, only crystallises how the Baudelaires feel about everything.

Edit: It's also worth noting that there was a theory in the immediate aftermath of TPP's publication that it was the end, that there would be no thirteenth book. Granted, some of this came from people who didn't understand the meaning of the word "penultimate" despite Lemony Snicket literally writing it down for them.

[Foxy]

Mar 15, 2019 19:36:02 GMT -5 tonyvfd said:

Does anybody else think that the penultimate peril would have been a better ending? 

I do!  I was just thinking about this the other day - your recent topics have been reading my mind! Snicket brought back so many of the characters from their past, and it felt like an ending for a while...until Dewey died... and the kids didn't get their day in court... and everything went up in flames, literally and figuratively. And then I reminded myself, this is the Denouement, not the ending, just like Dante said.  I love the snicketism about the real endings of fairy tales.  I think that's why the island ending fits - it's so different from the hotel.

Mar 16, 2019 4:27:46 GMT -5 Dante said:

Granted, some of this came from people who didn't understand the meaning of the word "penultimate" despite Lemony Snicket literally writing it down for them.

This made me laugh somewhat snidely!